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TESS-India (Teacher Education through School-based Support) aims to improve the classroom practices of
elementary and secondary teachers in India through the provision of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to
support teachers in developing student-centred, participatory approaches. The TESS-India OERs provide
teachers with a companion to the school textbook. They offer activities for teachers to try out in their
classrooms with their students, together with case studies showing how other teachers have taught the
topic and linked resources to support teachers in developing their lesson plans and subject knowledge.
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TESS-India is led by The Open University UK and funded by UK aid from the UK government.
Video resources
Some of the activities in this unit are accompanied by the following icon: . This indicates that you
will find it helpful to view the TESS-India video resources for the specified pedagogic theme.
The TESS-India video resources illustrate key pedagogic techniques in a range of classroom contexts in
India. We hope they will inspire you to experiment with similar practices. They are intended to complement
and enhance your experience of working through the text-based units, but are not integral to them should
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Using more English in your classroom
There are two important factors that can lead to your students becoming more confident in listening to and
speaking English:
• regular exposure to spoken English and hearing the language as it is used for communication
• regular practise in speaking English so that they develop confidence in using the language, becoming
familiar with its rhythms and comfortable with pronouncing it.
It is important for your students to have many opportunities to engage in real and meaningful
communications in English. One good way of learning a language is by immersion, where it is used in daily
life. This is how your students learned their home languages. Since English plays an important role in India,
many of them may be learning English this way as well. But even if your students do not have much exposure
to English outside of the classroom, they can still make significant progress in learning the language if they
get lots of practice listening to and speaking it inside the classroom (Lindsay and Knight, 2006, p. 8).
This unit explores how you can increase the number of interactions in English in your classroom. This way,
speaking English will not be something that students are scared of or worried about; instead, it will become
an easy and natural way for you to communicate with your students, and for them to communicate with each
other. The unit also shows you some ways to help your students practise speaking so that they become
more familiar with the rhythm and pronunciation of the language, so that it becomes more natural to them.
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In order to be able to communicate using English, students need to be able to hear and speak the language
regularly in lots of different settings and with lots of different tasks, not just in textbook exercises.
• greeting students
• taking attendance
• giving instructions
• checking previous knowledge
• managing behaviour
• encouraging students to speak
• praising your students
• giving homework
• saying goodbye
• talking to your students about their lives .
Table 1 lists some everyday classroom routines. There are some English phrases that you can use for each
situation. Write some more phrases in each box.
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Checking previous knowledge The topic of the lesson is Nelson Mandela. Can anyone tell me who
he is?
Saying goodbye OK, that’s all for today. Goodbye. See you all tomorrow.
Talking to your students socially What did you do yesterday after school?
When you have added some phrases to the list, compare yours with those listed in Resource 1.
Remember that your students may not understand the phrases at first. Gestures and actions will help
them to follow. For example, you could use this gesture when you say:
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Good morning, students. Please open your books at page 32. Today we
will be looking at Lesson 3 and reading the story ‘The Little Girl’.
Before we read, please look at the picture at the bottom of page 33. What
do you see there? Why do you think the father is lying on the sofa?
They looked at me with some surprise. At first, no one responded. So I repeated the instruction to open
their books two more times. Eventually, they all had their books open on the correct page. Then I got my
own book and I showed them the picture on page 3. I repeated the question:
It was quiet, but I waited a few moments for my students to reply. Eventually one student said ‘tired’. So I
replied: ‘Good! Yes, I think he’s tired.’
From this day, I started using more and more English with my students in class. I began to give classroom
instructions like ‘Can you read the next line please?’ I was surprised at how quickly they got used to my
speaking to them in English. Sometimes I had to repeat the instructions a number of times, but soon most
of them understood.
I am slowly starting to use more and more English in the classroom, and I am getting more confident about
it. I am sure I make some mistakes and my pronunciation isn’t perfect, but my students don’t seem to
notice. Sometimes I have problems with vocabulary, and I can’t think of a word or phrase I want to use in
English. When that happens, I try to think of another way to say what I want in English. As a last resort, I
use the Hindi word. I try to make a note of the words I don’t know. After class, I ask a colleague or look the
word up in the dictionary. This is helping me to improve my English too! And I notice that my students are
beginning to become more confident with speaking a few words of English when they reply to me. I try not
to correct them immediately but listen to the sense of what they are saying.
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In many English classes, students don’t speak much English. They may read aloud passages or poems from
the textbook, or they may read out something that they have written. These are all useful activities and help
students with their pronunciation. They also allow them to get used to saying things in English. However,
students also need to practise using English to communicate for real-life purposes, both within the
classroom and outside it.
The following activity gives you some ideas to help your students to practise some phrases that they can
use for everyday classroom activities, both with you and with other students. This will build their
confidence and ability to speak independently.
or
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You could also ask them to think about questions that they ask each other when they are doing
activities in their English lessons, for example in pair work (see Resource 2 for examples). If your
students aren’t used to doing pair work, this will help you to introduce the idea of doing it. See
Resource 3, ‘Using pairwork’, for more information.
2. Write these questions on the blackboard in the students’ home language.
3. Together with your students, think about how you can say these phrases in English.
4. Write the English phrases on the blackboard.
5. To practise pronunciation, have your students listen and repeat each phrase after you. This helps
them build their confidence in saying these expressions in a group.
6. Choose a few students from the class to repeat the phrase individually. This allows you to check
whether they are becoming confident enough to use these phrases. If you find that your students
are hesitant or unclear about the pronunciation, have them repeat the phrases again in a group.
7. To check their understanding, say the phrase in the students’ home language and have them say the
equivalent phrase in English.
8. Get a piece of chart paper. Call on individual students to write down one phrase each on the paper.
9. Hang the paper on the classroom walls. Remind your students of the phrases every day and
encourage them to use them.
10. Once the students are comfortable using these phrases, make a new chart of phrases that you can
use in the classroom so that you can increase the amount of English you use.
Part 2: Practising classroom language
In Part 1 you found and displayed some everyday language that students can use in the classroom. In order
for your students to become confident in using these phrases regularly, they will need practice. This
activity gives you some ideas about how to help your students to practise these phrases in a group, in pairs
and individually so that the language becomes more natural for them to use.
1. Choose one of the everyday phrases or dialogues that you have displayed on chart paper, for
example this dialogue that students could use in a pairwork activity:
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1. Say one of the phrases (for example ‘Do you know what this word means?’). Tell the students:
‘Repeat after me’, and have them repeat after you as a group. Do this two or three times. This builds
their confidence because it allows them to practise the new language in a group which often feels
safer.
2. Choose a few students from the class to repeat the phrase individually. This allows you to check
whether they are becoming confident to use these phrases. If you find that students are hesitant or
unclear about the pronunciation, have your students repeat the phrases again in a group.
3. Then say the response to that phrase (for example ‘No, I don’t know it either.’). Again, tell the
students to repeat the response after you as a group. Repeat this a few times and ask individual
students to repeat it. Do this for the entire dialogue.
4. Ask a question and tell your students to repeat the response as a group. You ask:
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Continue this for the whole dialogue. This demonstrates how the phrases might be used in
communication.
5. Divide the class into two halves. One side choruses the question:
Continue this for the whole dialogue. Point to each group when it is their time to read. If the
students don’t repeat together, stop the activity and start again. You can use gestures to keep
everybody in time. If you notice that students are having problems pronouncing any particular
words (e.g. ‘either’), have them repeat those words a few times.
6. By now the students should have built up their confidence to speak the phrases. Now they can
practise them in pairs to make them more confident when speaking on their own. Ask the students
to get into pairs. Ask one student to ask the question. The other student replies. Then they switch
roles. While working in pairs, students practise the dialogue as if it were a conversation. They are
not using language independently, but they are becoming familiar with useful phrases that they will
soon be able to use in order to communicate.
As your students work in pairs, walk around the class to see how they are getting on. Praise your students
for participating and encourage them to continue the good work. Note if students are having any problems
with pronunciation so that you can practise difficult words in a follow-up activity.
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Students may hesitate to use English at first. If they say something in their home language that is on the
chart paper, you could say: ‘Could you please try to say that in English?’ and point to the chart paper to
remind them of the phrase. Or you could ask the class, ‘Students, can anyone help Vishnu say that in
English?’
Once most students seem comfortable using the phrases that you have displayed, you could make another
poster of phrases. For example, you could make posters of vocabulary for different lessons from textbook,
or for different topics that you discuss. Keep reminding your students to use English as often as possible.
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And they repeated this. I just wanted them to hear the poem, to say it with rhythm, and to practise their
pronunciation. At this point, I wasn’t concerned about what they understood about the poem.
I then asked the whole class to read the next two lines together. So I read:
Then I divided my class into two halves. I told one half of the class to read the first two lines aloud; I told
the other half of the class to read the second two lines aloud.
At first the students didn’t say the lines together, so I stopped them and asked them to do it again. This
time I used my hands to signal when students should start a new line. I felt like I was conducting an
orchestra!
I also walked around the classroom to make sure that all of the students were joining in. I encouraged any
students who were not participating by saying, ‘Come on, let’s all speak together. Just try it!’
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Most of the students seemed to enjoy saying the poem and became quite competitive. Each group wanted
to say their line better than the other group! I hope that this will give them confidence to start speaking in
English. It might also help them to remember the poem better, and to use some of the language from it in
their own speaking and writing.
At first I thought it wasn’t appropriate to do this kind of activity with secondary students, as they really
should be more confident and able to speak English. But it is only by practising like this that they can gain
that confidence. While this activity did not require them to produce any of their own language, at least
they were speaking out loud and practising their pronunciation. I’m now regularly starting our classes with
a speaking activity. Once they get more confident with speaking out loud, I will try other speaking
activities where they use English to communicate.
1. Look through the next part of the textbook that you are going to teach.
2. Choose a short text, or part of a text, that you can use for a speaking activity. Any short text will do
but poems and dialogues are ideal.
3. Practise saying the text on your own before the class. Say it until you feel confident. If you’re not
sure about the pronunciation of any words, check with a colleague or friend.
4. In class, read the text (or some of the text) aloud to your students. Read line by line (or two lines at
a time) and ask your students to repeat after you. Make sure that you read out complete lines of
text, or complete sections – not one word at a time. Your students need to practise speaking
groups of meaningful words so that they get a sense of the rhythm of the language and begin to
make connections between words.
5. When you have read the text, and the students have repeated it, divide the class into two or three
large groups. Give each group a different part of the text to read.
6. Point to each group when it is their time to read.
7. If your students don’t repeat together, stop the activity and start again. Use gestures to keep
everybody in time.
8. Don’t interrupt your students when they are repeating, even if they make a mistake. Let them finish
the line or section. You can deal with pronunciation mistakes later.
9. Walk around the room and encourage everyone to participate.
• Did all your students join in? If not, how can you encourage them all to join in next
time?
• How can you do this activity in different ways to keep it interesting for your class?
• How can you use this kind of activity to help your students speak English to
communicate?
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If all your students did not participate, perhaps they need more time to gain the confidence to speak. They
will develop this if you do speaking activities regularly. Be sure to praise and encourage them. Don’t call
attention to mistakes. Give the shy students more opportunities and encouragement to speak. See
Resource 4, ‘Involving all’, for examples of this.
You can keep this kind of activity interesting by asking your students to repeat what they are saying in
English in different ways: slowly, quickly, loudly, quietly, in a sad way and so on. Ask different students to
read out their texts. You might first ask the whole class, then smaller groups and even individuals. Try to
include all of your students. While this can be a fun activity, it could become dull if repeated too many times
or applied to every text. Don’t ask students to repeat the same thing too many times or they will get bored.
The purpose of repetition activities is to help students build up confidence to speak and practise their
pronunciation. It is not to memorise a poem. By practising reading out a poem, students become familiar
with the sounds and rhythms of the English language. However, in order to learn to communicate in English,
they need to do more than repeat sentences from a textbook. Students also need to participate in
communicative speaking activities that can be applied to real-life situations.
4 Summary
In this unit you have explored how you can use more English in your classes, so that your students get used
to using English to communicate for everyday classroom activities. You also looked at activities where
students practise English phrases by repeating after you in groups or individually, so that they become
more confident speaking English in the classroom. For examples of classroom language that you may need
to do these activities, see Resource 1.
If you are interested in developing your own pronunciation skills so that you can provide a better role model
for your students, see Resource 5.
Other Secondary English teacher development units on this topic are:
• Building your students’ confidence to speak English: Choral repetition and pair dictation help
students to develop confidence in speaking. Learn more about how to help your students to feel
more confident in this unit.
• Supporting speaking in English: pair and groupwork.
Resources
Resource 1: Classroom language
Here are some useful phrases for the classroom. You can add other phrases to this list.
Greeting students
Good morning students. How are you today?
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Taking attendance
Let’s take attendance.
Giving instructions
Open your books at page 38.
Look at the picture at the top of the page.
Please read the first paragraph of the text.
OK – start!
Managing behaviour
Students, could you all sit down, please.
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Now the pair work activity is over. Please return to your desks.
Go on …
I’m sure you can answer that.
Can you explain that to the rest of the class?
Well done!
Good work!
I’m impressed.
Keep it up.
That’s correct.
You were very quick!
Giving homework
For your homework, please do Activity B.
We’re out of time. Please finish this activity at home.
Don’t forget about your homework!
At home, please do the exercises in the ‘Thinking about language’ section on page 40.
Before tomorrow’s lesson, think about a time you have taken a risk.
For homework, imagine you are Anne Frank. Think about what it must have been like to be her.
Saying goodbye
Okay then, that’s all for today. Goodbye. See you all tomorrow.
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Resource 2: Language that students can use with you and with
each other
What does XXX mean?
How do I say XXX in English?
Is that correct?
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If you have given students a problem to solve, you could give a model answer and then ask them to discuss
in pairs how to improve their answer. This will help them to think about their own learning and to learn from
their mistakes.
If you are new to pair work, it is important to make notes on any changes you want to make to the task,
timing or combinations of pairs. This is important because this is how you will learn and how you will
improve your teaching. Organising successful pair work is linked to clear instructions and good time
management, as well as succinct summarising – this all takes practice.
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these differences; indeed, we should celebrate them, as they can become a vehicle for learning more about
each other and the world beyond our own experience. All students have the right to an education and the
opportunity to learn regardless of their status, ability and background, and this is recognised in Indian law
and the international rights of the child. In his first speech to the nation in 2014, Prime Minister Modi
emphasised the importance of valuing all citizens in India regardless of their caste, gender or income.
Schools and teachers have a very important role in this respect.
We all have prejudices and views about others that we may not have recognised or addressed. As a teacher,
you carry the power to influence every student’s experience of education in a positive or negative way.
Whether knowingly or not, your underlying prejudices and views will affect how equally your students learn.
You can take steps to guard against unequal treatment of your students.
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you relate the learning to a context that is relevant to them and that you draw on examples from
their own experience.
• Use of language: Think carefully about the language you use. Use positive language and praise, and
do not ridicule students. Always comment on their behaviour and not on them. ‘You are annoying me
today’ is very personal and can be better expressed as ‘I am finding your behaviour annoying today.
Is there any reason you are finding it difficult to concentrate?’, which is much more helpful.
• Challenge stereotypes: Find and use resources that show girls in non-stereotypical roles or invite
female role models to visit the school, such as scientists. Try to be aware of your own gender
stereotyping; you may know that girls play sports and that boys are caring, but often we express this
differently, mainly because that is the way we are used to talking in society.
• Create a safe, welcoming learning environment: All students need to feel safe and welcome at
school. You are in a position to make your students feel welcome by encouraging mutually
respectful and friendly behaviour from everyone. Think about how the school and classroom might
appear and feel like to different students. Think about where they should be asked to sit and make
sure that any students with visual or hearing impairments, or physical disabilities, sit where they can
access the lesson. Check that those who are shy or easily distracted are where you can easily include
them.
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• Listen to English as much as you can, and notice how words are pronounced.
• Practise saying words or sounds that you find difficult.
• Don’t practise individual sounds only; you need to practise speaking longer passages too for stress
and rhythm.
• If it is possible, record yourself and listen to the recording. Record yourself again, correcting any
mistakes that you have noticed.
• Don’t worry about speaking English with a perfect accent. There are many different accents and
types of English. What is important is that people can understand you when you speak.
References/bibliography
BBC Learning English (undated) ‘Pronunciation tips’ (online). Available from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ (accessed 27 November 2013).
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006a) Beehive: Textbook in English for Class XI,
National Council of Educational Research and Training. Available from:
http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm (accessed 31 July 2013).
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006b) Honeysuckle: Textbook in English for Class
VI, National Council of Educational Research and Training. Available from:
http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm (accessed 31 July 2013).
Lindsay, C. and Knight, D. (2006) Learning and Teaching English: A Course for Teachers. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Pearson (undated) ‘Classroom language’ (online). Available from:
http://www.pearsonlongman.com/young_learners/pdfs/classroomlanguage.pdf (accessed 28 November
2013).
Acknowledgements
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated below, this content is made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). The
material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence for this project, and not subject to the
Creative Commons Licence. This means that this material may only be used unadapted within the TESS-
India project and not in any subsequent OER versions. This includes the use of the TESS-India, OU and
UKAID logos.
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Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce the material in
this unit:
Case Study 2: ‘Trees’ by Joyce Kilmer (1913) in Chapter 8 of the textbook Beehive, NCERT Class XI
http://ncert.nic.in/.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the
publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
Video (including video stills): thanks are extended to the teacher educators, headteachers, teachers and
students across India who worked with The Open University in the productions.
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